Travel industry entrepreneur Clive Jacobs has vowed to continue to fight against the government’s “illogical” traffic light system for international travel as a voice for small businesses.
London’s High Court last month ruled that the government acted lawfully in relation to the travel traffic light system which sets out restrictions for those travelling abroad. The case was brought by Manchester Airports Group (MAG), backed by a number of airlines and supported by Jacobs on behalf of SMEs.
He has now pledged to “do everything possible” to ensure that SME voices are heard and properly considered by government if an appeal goes ahead.
Jacobs, chairman of Jacobs Media Group which owns Travel Weekly, launched a crowd-funding appeal in June to gather support from travel sector SMEs for a group action aimed at forcing greater transparency of the methodology and data behind decisions on the traffic light system.
However, the claim for transparency was not supported by judges in the case who stated that providing the information requested when amber list countries changed “would impose an unreasonable burden” which would “risk slowing the decision-making process” and “may risk jeopardising the supply of information to HM government from overseas governments and organisations”.
MAG has applied for permission to appeal the decision and Jacobs pledged his continuing support to the claim and to SMEs in the travel sector.
He said: “I am deeply disappointed that the voices of SMEs in the travel sector do not seem to have been heard or taken seriously. The response to my crowdfunding appeal alone demonstrated clearly the significant pressure that the travel sector is under as a result not just of the pandemic but of the current government restrictions and the travel traffic light system which is illogical and lacks transparency.
“If MAG’s appeal goes ahead, I will do everything possible to support it and to ensure that the travel industry is heard and listened to in this claim.”
In the initial challenge, with significant trade support, Jacobs called on the court to recognise the “devastating” impact the government’s restrictions have had on the travel sector, particularly SMEs.
The evidence submitted in support of the claim highlighted the importance of travel SMEs to the UK economy, the rising business closures in the travel industry as a result of travel restrictions and the inability of businesses in the sector to operate within a traffic light system “that lacks transparency or logic”.
Jacobs’ evidence set out the difficulty of SME business owners to operate, to provide customer confidence, and to trade profitably amid constantly-changing government advice.
But Jacobs argued that there is a continued lack of published rationale behind these decisions.
“I made my application to court to evidence the widespread impact on the travel industry of the flawed and unreasonable way in which the travel traffic light system has been operated, and the ongoing damage that is being done to SMEs and livelihoods,” he added.
“The fight for transparency continues, and I believe that government must be held to account for the way it makes decisions that impact people’s rights and businesses in a sector that has suffered the most during the pandemic and which, in my view, is on the brink of irreversible economic devastation.”